Yes, Japan is a country of samurai. For a long time, the Tokugawa shogunate was troubled by the problem of too many samurai. According to the latest statistics of the shogunate, there are more than 400,000 samurai in Japan, and there are about 2 million samurai in Japan.

However, 70,000 people is really not a small number for the samurai class of 2 million people. Under normal circumstances, a country's army is only 10% of the country's population when it is fully mobilized. That is, a samurai population of two million can only support an army of two hundred thousand samurai at most. Now 70,000 people have participated in the war against Russia, and it is not known how many of them will return to their homeland with the honor of victory.

Tokugawa Akiko looked through a telescope and saw that a large tent had been erected outside the port of Busan, and there were already many armed Japanese soldiers guarding the tent. A Tokugawa Mitsuha Aoi flag, a Hinomaru flag, and a red-bottomed dragon flag symbolizing the Ming Imperial Family are hanging high on the flagpole outside the tent. Around this large tent, there are many smaller tents being erected one by one.

According to the decree of the Ming Emperor, the Japanese troops passing through Korea could not enter the city, but the Korean side needed to provide food and grass supplies for the passing army, and also provide the land where the army was stationed.

Behind Tokugawa Akiko, the voice of Minister Katsu Haizhou in the Ming Dynasty sounded, and his tone was a little low.

"Your Highness, according to the military plan of the Generalissimo's Office of the Ming Dynasty, our men will be used to attack the Nikolaevsk fortress in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River and the Petropavlovsk fortress in Kamchatka. The Ming army occupied a large area of land on the north bank of the middle reaches of the Heilongjiang River in the summer and autumn of this year, and also built a large number of wooden boats that could carry troops and supplies downstream to the estuary. It is estimated that the operation to attack the Nikolaevsk fortress will begin after the thaw in Heilongjiang. ”

There were not many strongholds of the Russians in Eastern Siberia in this era. Forts that can be held include the Buying and Selling Castle. It's three big and three small. The three are Irkutsk, Mamaocheng, and Nebuchu, and the three are Nikolaevsk, Petropavlovsk, and Chita.

Now the city is under siege by the Ming army - after the winter, the siege is temporarily suspended, but the siege continues. The Ming army built six wooden cities around the city, which were connected with the siege ditch. At the same time, the shelling continued day and night, and almost all the buildings in the city were bombed by shells, but the Russian Tatar forces in the city still refused to surrender. However, the contact between the offensive and defensive sides has been going on, and it is possible that the city will surrender soon.

The remaining five strongholds were all garrisoned by Russian troops, each of which was two or three thousand defenders, and possibly no less than 10,000 mobile troops—this was the estimate made by the Generalissimo of the Ming Army based on reconnaissance and interrogation of prisoners. On this basis, the Generalissimo's Office drew up a plan to capture the castle and hand over Nikolaevsk and Petropavlovsk to the Japanese army to capture. Irkutsk was captured by the Romanian Banner Corps. Nebuchu and Chita were occupied by the Heilongjiang Army. In addition, several small units of the Ming army were used to occupy Sakhalin, the Aleutian Islands, and several other Russian settlements along the coast of the Okhotsk Strait.

"Oh, only two fortresses need to be attacked." Akiko didn't know that the Japanese army was going to deal with a fortress built on the dangerous terrain, so she looked back at Matsudaira Rongbao: "No problem, right?" ”

Matsudaira Rongbao snapped a straight face: "Please rest assured, Your Highness." Our army has 30,000 men, and we will certainly be able to win the battle. Before next winter, the flag of the Tokugawa family will definitely be able to fly in the cities of Nikolaevsk and Petropavlovsk! ”

The total strength of the Japanese army was 30,000, and according to the establishment of the Ming army, it was composed of two infantry divisions, an artillery regiment, a cavalry regiment, a baggage regiment, an engineer regiment and an army headquarters. About 8,000 of them were drawn from the shogunate's new army. The remaining 22,000 were recruited from among the samurai and ronin of the various domains, who had received only the most basic training and had no experience in the new type of warfare. And their commander, Matsudaira Yoho, although he was an infantry officer, did not have much knowledge and experience in the new army. Relying on such a general to attack two bastions that even Western armies feel prickly in the eyes of the Western army is a bit unimaginable.

Sheng Haizhou shook his head slightly: "Lord Squire (Matsudaira's official position), Nikolaevsk and Petropavlovsk cities are extremely difficult fortresses to capture, and they are likely to need a long-term siege...... Now the 60,000 Ming army has been blocked under the trading city for several months, and the number of casualties and sick has exceeded 5,000! ”

Matsudaira Rongho smiled lightly: "It only took more than a month for Ieyasu Gong to attack a fortified city like Osaka, and the buying and selling city can still be stronger than Osaka?" This Ming army is too useless. ”

"Squire! How can Osaka Castle compare to Vauban No. 1 Fortress? It's not the same thing! ”

"It's all the same in front of the Japanese samurai."

Mingzi interjected lightly: "Okay, don't fight, no matter whether it's besieged or attacked...... As long as it can be defeated, if the army is not enough, you can recruit more. This time, we issued 5 million yuan of 15-year bonds in Shanghai, and we still have 8 million yuan in deposits in our HSBC account, which should be enough to support the war. ”

Of course, the military expenses and rewards of the more than 40,000 samurai who were incorporated into the Ming army were paid by Zhu Jishi, but the expenses of the 30,000 Japanese troops participating in the war needed to be borne by the shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate's finances have never been very lenient, and now there are many places where the "Meiji Restoration" costs money. Therefore, the shogunate could only rely on the savings of the shogunate over the years and the issuance of public bonds to support military spending, and a total of 13 million silver dollars was prepared.

"In addition, you can also give the land of Ezo and Patagonia to meritorious soldiers, there is a lot of land there, right?" Tokugawa Akiko said again.

The Japanese samurai are super fond of land, if there are only a few military salaries and no land, the morale of the 30,000 samurai army may not be too high, fortunately, Japan has just established colonies in the southern part of the Patagonian plateau and the western part of Tierra del Fuego, where there is extremely vast land to distribute, but it is a little desolate...... Apart from fishing and raising sacred beasts, grass and mud horses, there is really not much source of income.

"You can also give fiefs to the meritorious ministers of the Shugong and Heng Domain, and give the land of Patagonia." Tokugawa Akiko looked back at Katsu Haizhou, "Haizhou, let's also give you a piece of land in Patagonia...... I'll give you 1,000 pieces of land! ”

The land of Patagonia cannot be measured by stones, because it does not produce food, only grass and mud horses. Therefore, the shogunate used the unit of measurement of "machi" when allocating land in Patagonia, and one town was equal to about 9,917 square meters, and 1,000 towns were less than 10 square kilometers. If it is placed in the Kanto Plain of Japan, then the large land has at least 10,000 stone output.

"Thank you very much!" It's always a good thing to get 1,000 towns of land at once, and Katsu Haizhou hurriedly thanked him. Then he asked, "Your Highness, can you ask the Emperor of Heaven to give Shugong and the retainers of the Heng Domain some land in Siberia or Mongolia?" ”

Akiko shook her head: "No, just let them receive the bounty, and the shogunate will also give Patagonia land according to their merits...... After the end of the war, these meritorious men were asked to recruit civilians from Japan to settle in Patagonia, and the shogunate gave them a certain amount of funding. This should have a lot of benefits for the development of Patagonia. ”

Hearing Mingzi say this, Sheng Haizhou already understood what she meant. These Japanese samurai who served in the Ming army, if they were still alive after the war, could always make some meritorious deeds and get a certain reward, if the emperor gave them a severance pay, then these people would have some wealth, and the shogunate gave them the land in Patagonia, in fact, they wanted to use their wealth to develop that land. This His Royal Highness Ming's little abacus is really shrewd enough.

At this time, Akiko's female leader, Chiba Sanako, hurriedly walked over and gave a salute: "Your Highness, Zhao Bingkui, the official of the Korean Kingdom Chengzheng Yuan, has come on board. ”

"Okay, bring him here." Akiko nodded, and these North Koreans finally remembered to send a big official on the ship to greet them. (To be continued......)